Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vbStopForumSpam - known spammer lookup for new registrations

vbStopForumSpam

This provides access to a RBL type system for forum admins, listing known spam IP / email / usernames. The RBL database is provided by www.stopforumspam.com. You do NOT need an API key from the website in order to access the database. only to submit data if you should wish to do so.

At the point of user registration, the mod checks if the IP number / provided username / email addresses appear on a block list and can block the registration.

Whilst this isnt the most perfect way to stop all forum spam, its another step that spammers have to overcome.

VB4 here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hreadid=230921
Its the same code, it works in 3.54 to 4.0


What it does

It checks with a remote database of known forum spammers. Their IP number, email address and forum username are tested and based on your configuration, you can reject / log / accept user registrations based on what you get back.

This version doesnt have
- whitelisting or the ability to submit users to the database but it will within the next week.
- automatic user deletion / post / PM purging. There are good tools out there already, this does something else.

Instructions are included in the installation.txt file - PLEASE read it first and dont forget to actually upload the files in the upload folder, otherwise it WILL kill your registration progress and you wont see the log file options in admincp. You do not need to download the product-vbstopforumspam-3.54.xml file unless you are using a vBulletin version older than 3.6.0

Changes to vB
- 3 new database tables
- 2 database table alternations
- No new templates.
- 2 Hook (register_addmember_process & register_addmember_complete)

Ive tested it but had feedback that it works with versions as old as 3.6.2... Support should go back to older versions, as long as they have hook support for register_addmember_process / register_addmember_complete

Known to work - tested by me
- vBulletin 3.6.8 on Apache 2.2 / PHP 5.1.2 on Linux using cUrl
- vBulletin 3.7 Gold on Apache 2.0 / PHP 4.4.3 on Windows without cUrl (template changes wont work on 3.7 - thats in the next version with auto template changes)

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=288

Reported in the thread to work
- 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.9, 3.6.10, 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.74, 3.80, 3.81, 3.82, 3.83, 3.8.4, 4.0beta3

If you have 3.54, then you can use the product-vbstopforumspam-3.54.xml file attached instead of the one in the ZIP file, which will allow older vBulletin versions to access this mods' features. I personally havent tested this version, its a user contribution, thanks to Darrell Mobley, that changes the way the XML works when imported into older versions.

Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item.

REQUIRES MySQL 4.1.1+

Future versions
- Automatic integration into vBulletin to add users to the stopForumSpam.com database from a form
- Whitelisting of username / IP / email addresses
- AJAX integration to allow for lookups from within the users profile
- Decreased remote query count from three per user to one per user.

Versions / Changes

0.1 Initial Release

0.2 pedigrees special brew birthday release.
- Small security update. If you have 0.1 installed, download 0.2 and replace your existing functions_vbsfs.php with the one in the archive. It just tests to see if its running inside the VB framework before anything else. This is what happens when you code at 2am after drinking wine

0.3
- stopped it processing valid registrations twice
- moved all non-function code into the plugin. Not a big one as 0.2 basically did that
- fixed a typo in the log pruner that stopped it working (404)
- removed unused fields from the database for people with mysql that doesnt support varchar > 255 (ie mySQL4). If you have 0.2 installed and dont need to prune your logs just yet, you dont really need to install this version but can instead wait for 1.0 unless of a massive security update.

0.4
- logs registrations that arent/wouldnt be blocked
- fixed XML errors when username has a space it in
- tightened up the cache so that it doesnt test a username against an email name to give a bypass result (for when a username is an email address that isnt banned where the email address is)
- fixed some basic logic errors in the PHP

0.6
- Should work on PHP 4.4 now - rewrote the XML with PHP4 in mind (tested on Apache2.0/PHP 4.4.3)
- Fixed a caching system where data wasnt being updated correctly which could cause a remote query when one wasnt needed
- Possible false negative situation when a spammer was blocked due to SFS.com being down who then visited again when it was up but within the cache expiry time
- Remote query failure when the result page isnt XML should work a bit better now. It does a very basic test for valid XML results.
- Fixed log purging (again) and it should actually work properly now.
- No longer requires PHP5
- The log viewer now links to a user profile when registration is allowed.

v0.61 - Removed a template change that was invalid vBulletin code. The package you download will still say its 0.60 however

NB : When upgrading from any version to 0.6, you must remove and then add the plugin due to changes in one of the database tables

You need to have an API key from www.stopforumspam.com in order to submit data, its free and easy to get... You DONT need an API key in order to use this mod however, only to submit spammer data.

Issues are
- The usergroup permissions / view details etc DONT work. I jumped the gun and put the permissions controls in there before I put the code in. Please delete the includes/xml/bitfield_vbstopforumspam.xml file and rebuild your postbit

Installation
- Follow the instructions in the zip file, that includes upload the correct folders
- ONLY download the 3.54 xml file if youre using a vbulletin version prior to 3.6.0. use this file to install the mod instead of the xml file in the zip file.

Please click Installed

[abrecher]

Is there any plan to port this to 3.7 ? In the interim I'm downloading the IPs and domains manually from StopForumSpam.com

[pedigree]

v0.61 should work just fine in 3.7. I have access to someones 3.7 development board as it seems to be working great. Ive started on a specific 3.7 version that adds functionality to the user options as a tab - thats coming along nicely and I should have code out within a week, the 3.6 code isnt as easy to add.

It will have the ability to submit details to the remote site and test users details against the remote database if you think they managed to sneak past before the site was updated.

Ive got it going on 3.7.0, he hasnt pulled 3.7.1 yet as hes in the middle of fixing the templates

[abrecher]

Originally Posted by pedigree

v0.61 should work just fine in 3.7. I have access to someones 3.7 development board as it seems to be working great. Ive started on a specific 3.7 version that adds functionality to the user options as a tab - thats coming along nicely and I should have code out within a week, the 3.6 code isnt as easy to add.

It will have the ability to submit details to the remote site and test users details against the remote database if you think they managed to sneak past before the site was updated.

Ive got it going on 3.7.0, he hasnt pulled 3.7.1 yet as hes in the middle of fixing the templates

Just tested on 3.7.1 and it works great!

[skippybosco]

From an email I sent about recent site activity:

Interesting side effect, since rolling in the new spam prevention I'm 110% effective at registration for the last day or 2. (I say 110% because I'm getting some false positives)..

Then everything stopped. All of the spam registrations went away for a couple of hours...

...then I got slammed with a storm of delivery failure notices. Apparently I angered the SPAM gods and they went from fake registrations to sending out on my behalf. I'm at 27,980 at the time of this writing. (No new spam registrations during this whole storm).. interesting to see how things shake out and if the fake registrations start back up again.

The number died down at 194,270 failed message delivery messages (someone sending with my domain name as the sender/reply to.

Sadly fake registrations started up again but still most are getting caught.

Question. Is it possible to auto ban users based on their email domain suffix (.cn)

I know I can prevent them from signing up with this using the out of box, but I prefer to let them continue to use a suffix I can recognize and am ok with bulk banning and then dump them in ban right away. The spammer (unless they read this post :-?) will not know why they are being banned and this will be quite a big net for me at present time.

Any suggestions?

[Wired1]

Originally Posted by skippybosco

Question. Is it possible to auto ban users based on their email domain suffix (.cn)

I know I can prevent them from signing up with this using the out of box, but I prefer to let them continue to use a suffix I can recognize and am ok with bulk banning and then dump them in ban right away. The spammer (unless they read this post :-?) will not know why they are being banned and this will be quite a big net for me at present time.

Any suggestions?

Personally, I use the User Banning Options and block certain IP ranges / domains from there.

So, you're wanting to LET them join, and then BAN? Why?


Hey pedigree, the log only shows their username as a link if they've completed the registration process, correct?

[skippybosco]

Because right now they are using .cn domains 95% of the time so it is easy to take a swipe at good versus bad in the registrations that slip through.

If I ban .cn via vbulletin options they will not be able to register and will switch to alternate domains (this is what happened when I tried to use the Vbulletin banning) and the trend may not be as easy to spot

Today, even though the majority of the registrations are banned as soon as they sign up, they continue to use .cn domains.. my logic is that if I auto ban .cn I can make sure the large majority of attempts are caught without ever having to check an RBL or remote service.

This is all subject to the trend variation obviously.

IP addresses were much to hard of a moving target for me. I spent some time trying to amass large lists of proxies and such (thousands and thousands of addresses) and adding them every time one slipped through. A lot of effort for not much success.

I believe very much in the centralized model where a few take the pain for the many so we stop them in their tracks the first time someone reports an issue.. seems to be doing the trick so far for me!

[abrecher]

Where are the signup logs stored and where can I view them please ?

[Wired1]

Originally Posted by abrecher

Where are the signup logs stored and where can I view them please ?

AdminCP -> Statistics & Logs -> vbStopForumSpam Logs

[abrecher]

Looking at the logs....

25 out of 36 signups have duplicate log entries.

Half of the entries that were successful do not have a link to their user entry in the admin cp

[skippybosco]

Duplicates in the logs is explained a couple of posts up.

Not being linked, if your configuration is anything like mine, is a result of multiple checks during registration (in my case StopForumSpam and RBL).. You will see a "Registration successful" if it made it past StopForumSpam, but if RBL caught it then there is no link.

So basically, if the user does not exit then there should not be a link to the user (easy concept I just made sound REALLY complicated I think.. heh.. )